Titan International’s new low sidewall (LSW) tyre is on trial at two quarry sites and initial reports seem positive.

The LSW tyre has entered the UK market with claims of a more stable and smooth off-highway ride. It has a lower aspect ratio and smaller sidewall than a standard tyre, resulting in an increased wheel diameter with no increase in the outside diameter of the tyre.

This concept has already proved successful in the automotive market, but Titan has adapted it for more demanding construction machinery applications. The result, according to Titan, is less side-to-side movement and thus improved vehicle stability.

Japanese manufacturer Yanmar has made its first excavators with two piece booms.

The SV100-2 crawler excavator usually only has a single joint but Yanmar has produce a double-jointed version, which will get its first public viewing in September at a trade show in Germany, the NordBau in Neumünster (9th-13th September 2015).

Yanmar says that the additional joint enhances the mobility of the 10-tonne excavator’s arm and thus increases the flexibility of its usage.

Here’s a beast ... maybe not the biggest, weighing in at 45 tonnes, but certainly fierce-looking for all that.

It’s the new R 950 Tunnel crawler excavator from Liebherr-France. Produced at the manufacturer’s Colmar facility, it’s designed to be compact to get inside tunnel construction sites and tear away at the rock face. It is the successor the R 944 C Tunnel, with improved breakout forces naturally, and can work in tunnels that are between five and eight metres high.

A Bobcat S550 skid-steer loader hired from MTS Plant Hire & Sales is part of the fleet of equipment being used by Portsmouth-based Hughes & Salvidge Demolition to demolish Sheffield’s Castle Market.

Castle Market was for many years a local landmark in Sheffield. It was built in 1928, with later additions being made in the 1960s and 1970s. The history of the site goes back much further, however. It was constructed on the ruins of Sheffield Castle, which was built in 1270 and destroyed in 1648 by Parliamentarians after the English Civil War.

The indoor market finally closed its doors for good in November 2013, to coincide with the opening of Sheffield’s new Moore Market in the same year.